US drilling rig count drops by 2 to 794

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Baker Hughes reports the number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by two to 794 the week ending Jan. 24, down from 796 the previous week and down by 265 from 1,059 a year ago.

In its weekly rig count the Houston oilfield services company said 676 rigs targeted oil (up three from the previous week; down 186 from a year ago) and 115 targeted natural gas (down five from the previous week; down 82 from a year ago). There were three miscellaneous rigs active (unchanged from the previous week and up by three from a year ago).

The company said 47 of the holes were directional, 710 were horizontal and 37 were vertical.

New Mexico was up four rigs from the previous week; Ohio was up by one.

Rig counts were unchanged from the previous week in Alaska, California, Colorado, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Utah.

West Virginia was down by one rig from the previous week and Wyoming was down by two rigs.

Texas, the state with the most active rigs at 397, was down four from the previous week.

Baker Hughes shows Alaska with 10 rigs active for the week ending Jan. 24, down one from a year ago.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May 2016 at 404.

- KRISTEN NELSON